8' Observation

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8. Observation

• Jin-Wan Seo, Professor
• Dept. of Public Administration,
• University of Incheon

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8. Observation

• Experiments
• Survey Research
• Qualitative Field Research
• Unobtrusive Research
• Evaluation Research

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8. Observation

• Experiments
• an excellent vehicle for the controlled testing
  of causal processes.
• The classical experiment tests the effects of an
  experimental stimulus (the independent variable)
  on a dependent variable through the pretesting
  and posttesting of experimental and control
  groups.

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8. Observation

• Experiments Weakness Strength
• Experiments face problems of internal and
  external invalidity experimental findings may
  not reflect real life.
• Primary weakness is ______________ what happens
  in an experiment may not reflect what happens in
  the outside world.
• Strengths include the isolation of the
  independent variable, which permits causal
  inferences the relative ease of replication and
  scientific rigor

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8. Observation

• A popular social research method, is the
  administration of ____________ to a sample of
  respondents selected from some population
• especially appropriate for making descriptive
  studies of large populations survey data may be
  used for explanatory purposes as well.

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8. Observation

• Open-ended
• Dichotomous Question
• Multiple Choice (all inclusive and mutually
  exclusive)
• Ranking Question
• Self-anchoring Scale
• Comparing Scale

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8. Observation

• Guidelines of Items in a questionnaire
• The items must be clear and precise
• The items should ask only about one thing.
• Respondents must be competent to answer the item.
• Respondents must be willing to answer the item.
• Questions should be relevant to the respondent.
• Items should ordinarily be short.
• Negative terms should be avoided so as not to
  confuse respondents.
• The items should be worded to avoid biasing
  responses.

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8. Observation

• The format of a questionnaire can influence the
  quality of data collected.
• The order of items in a questionnaire can
  influence the responses given.
• Clear instructions are important for getting
  appropraite responses in a questionnaire.

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8. Observation

• Basic ways of administering questionnaire
• Self-administered questionnaires
• Economy, speed, lack of interviewer bias, and the
  possibility of anonymity and privacy to encourage
  candid responses on sensitive issues
• Face-to-face interview
• Fewer incomplete questionnaire and fewer
  misunderstood questions, generally higher return
  rates, and greater flexibility in terms of
  sampling and special observations
• Telephone surveys
• The savings in cost and time, safer than
  in-person interviewers, and they may have a
  smaller effect on the interview itself.
• Online Surveys
• Economy, the amount of data that can be
  collected, and the chance to sample a large
  population.

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8. Observation

• Qualitative Field Research
• Field research involves the direct observation
  of social phenomena in their natural settings
  qualitative rather than quantitative.
• Field research is especially appropriate to
  topics and processes that are not easily
  quantifiable, that are best studied in natural
  settings, or that change over time.
• Among the special considerations involved in
  field research are the various possible roles of
  the observer and the researchers relations with
  subjects.
• As a researcher, you must decide whether to
  observe as an outsider or as a participant,
  whether or not to identify yourself as a
  researcher, and how to negotiate your
  relationship with subjects.

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8. Observation

• Qualitative Field Research
• Field researcher often conduct in-depth
  interviews that are much less structured than
  those conducted in survey research. Qualitative
  interviewing is more of a guided conversation
  than a search for specific information.
• Whenever possible, field observations should be
  recorded as they are made otherwise, they should
  be recorded as soon as afterward as possible.
• Advantages are the depth of ______________ it
  can provide, its flexibility, and usually its
  inexpensiveness.
• Compared with surveys and experiments, field
  research measurements generally have more
  validity but less reliability. Also, field
  research is generally not appropriate for
  arriving at statistical descriptions of large
  populations.
• Conducting field research responsibly involves
  confronting several ethical issues that arise
  from the researchers direct contact with
  subjects.

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8. Observation

• Unobtrusive Research
• ways of studying social behavior without
  affecting it in the process.
• Unobtrusive Measures
• content analysis
• the analysis of existing statistics
• historical/comparative analysis

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8. Observation

• 1. Content analysis
• Content analysis is a social research method
  appropriate for studying human communications
  through social artifacts. Researcher can use it
  to study not only communication processes but
  other aspects of social behavior as well.
• Common units of analysis in content analysis
  include elements of communications word,
  paragraphs, books, and so forth.
• content analysis involves coding transforming
  raw data into categories based on some conceptual
  scheme. Coding may attend to both manifest and
  latent content. The determination of latent
  content requires judgments on the par to the
  researcher.
• Both quantitative and qualitative techniques are
  appropriate for interpreting content analysis
  data.
• Its advantages include economy, safety, and the
  ability to study processes occurring over a long
  time. Its disadvantages are that it is limited to
  recorded communications and can raise issues of
  reliability and validity.

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8. Observation

• 2. The analysis of existing statistics
• A variety of government and non-government
  agencies provide aggregate statistical data for
  studying aspects of social life.
• Problems of validity in the analysis of existing
  statistics can often be handled through logical
  reasoning and replication.
• Existing statistics often have problems of
  reliability, so they must be used with caution.
• 3. Historical/comparative analysis
• Social scientists use historical/comparative
  methods to discover patterns in the histories of
  different cultures.
• Although often regarded as a qualitative method,
  historical/comparative research can make use of
  qualitative techniques.

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8. Observation

• Evaluation research is a form of applied research
  that studies the effects of social interventions.
• A careful formulation of the problem, including
  relevant measurements and criteria of success or
  failure, is essential in evaluation research. In
  particular, evaluators must carefully specify
  outcomes, measure experimental contexts, specify
  the intervention being studied and the population
  targeted by the intervention, and decide whether
  to use existing measures or devise new ones.
• Evaluation researchers typically use
  experimental or quasi-experimental designs.
  (As-Is vs. To-Be Model)
• Evaluators can also use qualitative methods of
  data collection. Both quantitative and
  qualitative research, sometimes in the same study.

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